


Nowhere Is Too Far

by Anonymous



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Angst, Broken Castiel (Supernatural), Castiel Can’t Use His Words, Castiel is a Winchester, Cas’s True Form, Emotionally Hurt Castiel (Supernatural), Family Feels, Fluff and Hurt/Comfort, Gen, Protective Winchesters (Supernatural), The Winchesters Hug It Out With Castiel
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-17
Updated: 2019-03-17
Packaged: 2019-11-23 03:41:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,550
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18146498
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/
Summary: Everything finally tips Cas over the edge and into a nearly catatonic state.But the brothers find a spell that will take them to wherever Cas is, in the hope of comforting their angel and bringing him back to them.He’s their family; they are not losing him now.





	Nowhere Is Too Far

“Here. Dean, Dean, look at this!”

Sam pushed the books in front of Dean aside, and shoved the thicker tome from the shelves under his brother’s nose.

Dean looked at it, bleary eyed; neither of them had slept since Cas….since _something_ had happened to Cas, causing the angel to pull in on himself and withdraw, so out of their reach that he had them both scared beyond belief.

They couldn’t lose him again, but with a non responsive angel unable or unwilling to give them anything to go off of, progress in finding a way to help him hadn’t so much been slow as it had been non-existent.

But this…. Dean straightened up and willed his eyes to quit blurring all the words.

This might be it.

And yet it sounded so impossible to achieve, and Dean wanted to scream. This was their answer, and it made sense, what the text described was exactly what seemed to have happened to Cas, but how on earth could they possibly manage to put this right?

“Sam,” he started, but his brother was already running back to the book stacks, and searching the titles frantically before selecting one and returning to the table.

“I found this,” he said, hurriedly turning the page, “and I didn’t think we’d ever need to, but now…”

He passed the book to Dean, and Dean read it through carefully. Everything this would take, they had here in the bunker.

He closed the book over with a snap and looked up at Sam.

“Time to go get our angel.”

++

It had been two days earlier when they had both found Cas sitting in a corner of the war room, tucked into the smallest space, head on his knees, hugging himself and saying absolutely nothing.

He hadn’t reacted at all when they’d tried to figure out what was wrong, or when they’d got him to his feet and led him to his room, and stripped and examined him in case he was carrying an injury and hadn’t said (not the first time that had happened) or he’d gotten cursed or marked or something.

But he was unhurt, physically at least, and after they put him in to bed, and tucked him in, he hadn’t moved once.

Just lay there, staring at the ceiling.

Sam was sure Cas might have been physically in that room, but it felt like the rest of him was elsewhere. Or just tucked away and out of reach.

But not anymore.

When he and Dean opened their eyes, it took them a moment to adjust to their surroundings.

The spell, at least had worked; the ether in its unfiltered form would have killed them both instantly, even though it was their spirits, their souls that were here rather than their actual bodies.

But the ritual had safeguarded them, allowing them to come here, because it was here the books said they would find Cas.

Sam tried to rein in his anger and disappointment, at Cas, at themselves.

They’d thought he was okay, and instead he’d still been sinking under the weight of everything, and they hadn’t noticed and he hadn’t reached out to them.

Sam honestly thought they’d moved past Cas trying to handle his pain, whatever the cause, on his own.

But then maybe Cas hadn’t realised how badly he was doing. Sam knew the lies your head could tell you, and it was just possible Cas had been distracted from his true condition by everything else going on.

There was a maximum load anybody could bear, even angels, and it seemed like Cas had reached his, so suddenly that it had broken him and sent his true form into retreat.

Here, the ether, the _inbetween_.

“If that book’s right,” Dean whispered, because everything was silence here and even their presence seemed loud, “how the hell will we know it’s him? And keep our eyes, and be able to...to get him out of here?”

Too many questions, but Sam knew they were all relevant.

“The spell will stop either the ether or his true form hurting us,” Sam said. “Like a filter.”

And maybe…. Sam was extrapolating, here, but he had a feel it would also present Cas’s true form in something they could relate to, not be freaked out by, and hopefully _understand_.

When he saw something rounded, curved in on itself, in the distance, he hoped he was right.

But it had to be Cas. The spell would not let them near anything else, and nothing else near them, so they started to run.

Only when they were closer did they scramble to a stop, because there was no mistaking the form tucked in on itself, quivering and trying to hide.

It was Cas.

But it was also a dragon.

++ 

Somehow, even without any acknowledgement from the trembling form in front of them, Dean knew it was Cas.

The dragon’s body was a variety of iridescent blue shades, and not as large as he would have expected (like he’d a hope in hell of being of anything here being like he might have imagined).

His wings were brought forward, concealing most of his head, except for his snout, and his tail was tucked in as close to the rest of him as it could get.

“Cas,” he said, and carefully reached out to stroke the creature.

The dragon trembled even more, and give a low pained whine.

But it didn’t sound like a stop, and Dean glanced at Sam; he could see his brother felt the same.

Cas was just reacting to his pain, and it seemed was ashamed at them seeing him like this.

The way he huddled his wings in more tightly around himself seemed to bear that out.

“It’s okay,” Sam said. “Cas, it’s okay, we came for you, please don’t shut us out.”

Dean, boldened, moved in closer, and gently ran his hand down one of Cas’s wings. 

“Come on, Cas,” he begged. “What happened, angel? Why did you shut yourself away like this?”

He didn’t miss the wing twitching back, revealing a wide blue eye, and a single fat tear that plopped down from it.

Fuck.

“Cas,” Sam said, and his voice sounded broken so Dean guessed he wasn’t the only one to see that.

And then Cas pushed himself up a little, and his wings shifted, and tugged Dean and Sam in towards him.

They startled, but didn’t resist. Maybe all this time, Cas had needed this but doesn’t hadn’t known it or hadn’t known how to ask.

Or hadn’t dared.

But he was asking now, and they were never going to deny him any comfort they could give.

Dean reached up to pet Cas’s face as he wrapped his other arm around the dragon, saw Sam was doing the same.

They spoke in hushed tones, saying something, anything, Dean wasn’t even sure what, finding whatever words they could and just making comforting sounds when those words ran out.

Slowly, gradually, Cas seemed to settle. He nuzzled each of them, and Dean noticed the ether was starting to change.

The spell was wearing off, maybe because it’d done what they needed it to do.

“You’re coming back to us, right?” 

He watched carefully for Cas’s response, because if it was a no, then he’d be spelling his ass right back here and dragging the angel out by the tail this time.

Cas nodded, and then he was nudging them back the way they’d come, and Sam was telling Cas they’d be there waiting, and then-

++

When Dean snapped to, the first thing he did was look to the bed. Half of him expected to see Cas lying there, still locked away in that place. Or, worse, gone entirely.

But he wasn’t. He was slowly sitting up as if pulling himself back together one tattered, broken inch at a time.

They didn’t wait, neither him or Sam.

Cas was suddenly engulfed by them both, and they held on him to tight, probably crushing him a little as they hugged the shit out of him.

“Never,” Dean started. “Never, ever, do that again, I will kick your ass, you-“

“Dean,” Sam snapped. But he caught Cas’s jaw and gently turned the angel’s head to look at him. “Cas, please don’t ever shut yourself away like that. If we hadn’t found that spell…. We can’t lose you, Cas, and there is nothing we won’t help you with. No battle we won’t fight with you. You’re our family, Cas, and we love you.”

For one moment, Dean thought Cas was going to cry again, and fuck it, he didn’t mind, anything was better than having him withdraw so far that they had to use magic to reach him.

Just in case, he guided Cas’s head down to his shoulder, rested his cheek on the angel’s hair.

“Whatever you need,” he told Cas. “Whenever you need it. Starting right now, okay? For all of us.”

He looked to Sam, on the angel’s other side, and got a nod of agreement. Because they had all done this in their own ways, and that stopped today.

They were all they had, now, this small broken family, and Dean was determined to keep them safe and together for as long as he could.


End file.
